Tales of friendship and estrangement at Eiga Sai

When I finally completed viewing all 10 films in this year’s Japanese Film Festival last July 5, it felt like disembarking once again at one of the many destinations in my unending journey to understand Japan and its people. On that rainy evening, I arrived at the edge of a fictitious world inhabited by people seemingly happy but deeply estranged from their selves, families, and friends, yet stoically doing their duties and obligations to their kin and society. This year’s varied tales and landscapes – some poetic but painfully bleak, several more present-day, the others a throwback to the samurai era or early postwar Japan – skillfully bring viewers to terrains of terrible loneliness. There are ordeals of husbands and wives, of ordinary people, of students – all with confused and confusing emotions that sing and sear. There are accounts of passions blinded by disenchantment, of nostalgia for the olden days of gentility and simplicity, and of uplifting life lessons about love, forgiveness, friendship, and comradeship. The scriptwriters weave convincing narratives of emotional deprivation, inner turmoil due to personal and world wars, small daily deaths due to ill-fitting social roles, and triumphant rebirths after sufferings. Rooted in real situations and everyday life in Japan, several of the films have ambiguous endings, making them more heart-rending but also delectably stimulating to the mind. All told, the pivotal characters in the films brood over eternally essential questions asked between birth and death, the melancholic musings staying with discerning viewers even after the films have ended. The 2011 Eiga Sai has harvested 10 of the best films in contemporary Japanese cinema. Departures (Okuribito), which won the 2009 US Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, is the main draw in this year’s festival. Directed by Yojiro Takita and written by Koyama Kundo, the film’s utter beauty and angst are effectively personified by the cast and ably complemented by the musical scoring of Joe Hisaishi, photography by Takeshi Hamada, and production design by Fumio Ogawa.

In One Million Yen Girl (Hyakumanen to Nigamushi Onna), actress Yu Aoi, currently the brightest star in Japanese cinema, magnetizes the audience with her nuanced portrayal of a young adult wrongly accused and jailed, thus tainting her reputation for life. Once out of prison, her younger brother and her friends disown her. She vows to bury her past and leave her bitter life by moving from town to town, working menial jobs while trying to save one million yen for a long trip. As she moves about, she relies on the kindness of strangers, falls in love, and matures. The Chef of South Polar (Nanyoku Ryorinin) is a comedy adapted from a famous essay written by a cook who was sent against his will to serve Japan’s eight-member team based at Dome Fuji Station, 1,000 km away from the Antartica coast, in 1997. Most of the action happens while the team is gathered around the dining table, savoring the dishes whipped up by chef Jun Nishikura, deftly played by Masato Sakai. As they spend time together in this no man’s land, they talk about their families back home and draw up a list of things they want to do before they die. Set during the Edo period, the animated film Summer Days with Coo (Kappa no Coo to Natsu-yasumi) revolves around a young child and an amphibious creature called a kappa, and the friendship that develops between them. This clever film tackles the sensitive topics of environmental degradation and man’s unmindful altering of natural habitats of animals to give way to development, all without being preachy. In the gripping Climber's High (Kuraimazu Hai), based on a bestselling novel by Hideo Yokoyama, dedicated reporter Kazuo Yuki (played by Shinichi Tsutsumi) confronts ethical issues that resonate even among Filipino journalists and editors. He is pushed into life-changing decisions, as he is put in charge of reporting the biggest single-plane tragedy in the world. Climber’s High depicts real-life tension and back-stabbing among journalists in and out of the newsroom. The psychological film Your Friend (Kimi no Tomodachi) is a moving story between Emi (Anna Ishibashi) and Yuka (Ayu Kitaura), who are both bullied in school but eventually help each other overcome their personal difficulties. As they grapple with their problems, they are able to help their classmates too. The film captures the problematic situation of bullied children who refuse to attend school in Japan, a country which puts so much emphasis on education as the path to a successful life and career. Yunagi City, Sakura Country (Yunagi no Machi, Sakura no Kuni), another riveting psychological film, is set in 1945 Hiroshima and 21st century Tokyo. It examines the horrors and haunting experience of the Hiroshima bombing victims and survivors. The pains of devastated lives and heavy yoke of secrets kept from descendants of the bombing survivors chew the audience like hungry termites. In The Summit: A Chronicle of Stones (Tsurugidake: Ten no Ki), Yoshitaro Shibazaki (Tadanobu Asano) is ordered in 1907 to conquer the last uncharted region of Japan – the inaccessible Mt. Tsurugidake, also known as the “Mountain of Death." His willingness to die just to accomplish his goal – but not without self-doubts – wins him the respect of his colleagues and townspeople. Sachi (Takako Matsu) gives an understated but no less formidable acting as a devoted wife to a popular but promiscuous writer as she struggles to discover herself while dealing with the infidelities of her husband amid the chaos of early postwar Japan in Villon’s Wife (Villon no Tsuma). Ten runners prepare to join the Hakone Relay Marathon, the ultimate event for long- distance runners, in Feel the Wind (Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru). While training rigorously, they grow into manhood and promise to pursue their dreams. It took me four days and five nights to watch all the films, where most of the characters ultimately find redemption at the appropriate time. My Japan expedition has been going on since 1980, but every day, I am still discovering something new about the country and its people. – YA, GMA News All photos courtesy of Japan Foundation-Manila